Daily Intelligencer -- New York News -- New York Magazine

5/22/13 at 3:32 AM
Crimes And Misdemeanors
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A sign of Rikers Island, where IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn will be held, is pictured in Queens, New York on May 16, 2011. A New York judge denied IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn bail on Monday, despite an offer from his defense team to put up $1 million in cash and surrender all his travel documents. The judge ordered the IMF chief detained, two days after he was pulled off a plane and accused of trying to rape a Manhattan hotel chambermaid. AFP PHOTO/Jewel Samad (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

Real Life Nancy Drew Gets Framed Boyfriend Out of Rikers

Sadly, a New York Daily News story about a woman who got her framed boyfriend freed from Rikers is light on details about who this amateur sleuth is, and how exactly she proved Joshua Robles had been set up on armed robbery and sexual assault charges. Former friends of Robles allegedly persuaded a young woman named Alexis Hopes to file a report that he attacked her. Robles's girlfriend "tracked Hopes on Facebook and proved to the Queens DA’s officer that Hopes was dating" the son of his alleged framer.

5/22/13 at 1:39 AM
Cable-stained Wretches
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Profitable ESPN Cites Higher Game Fees in Cutting 300-400 Jobs

After layoffs at the New York Daily News, Columbia Journalism Review, and a crackup at the Village Voice this month, a much larger-scale downsizing is happening at ESPN, where 300 to 400 jobs are expected to disappear both through layoffs and leaving positions unfilled. The Times points out it's a comparatively small number compared to the 6,500 people who work for the Walt Disney-owned company. Even though ESPN is "hugely profitable," WSJ reports, it says higher rates it's paying for the rights to air games are cutting into its bottom line.

5/22/13 at 1:25 AM
The Racie For Gracie
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It's Official: Anthony Weiner is Running for Mayor, Wants a 'Second Chance'

By Margaret Hartmann

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As many suspected, that video Anthony Weiner filmed on the steps of his parents' Park Slope home wasn't part of some ridiculously elaborate home movie. After publicly deliberating for several weeks, Weiner officially announced he's running for mayor in a campaign ad posted around midnight. The video is the visual companion to his New York Times Magazine profile, minus the verbose soul-searching. It opens with a shot of Weiner and wife Huma Abedin at home with their young son, and includes a plea for redemption. "Look I made some big mistakes, and I know I let a lot of people down. But I've also learned some tough lessons," says Weiner, adding, "I hope I get a second chance to work for you."

5/22/13 at 1:00 AM
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Bill de Blasio Is The Times' 'New Brooklyn' Mayoral Candidate

By Adam Martin

Bill de Blasio is understandably thrilled by a glowing New York Times profile that paints the candidate as the living embodiment of the new Brooklyn. The pro-recycling, organic milk-drinking de Blasio is "determined to capitalize on its ascendancy, grass-fed beef jerky and all, offering the new Brooklyn as a proxy for all the boroughs outside Manhattan, whose dynamism and energy, he argues, is woefully unmatched by their influence inside the mayor’s office." The Times is clearly still not over its Brooklyn obsession, but this time it may have a point about the weighted political influence of Manhattan, where most of de Blasio's Democratic competitors live, even if they have outer-borough roots. Brooklyn's other mayoral candidate, Sal Albanese, is not going to like this one bit.

5/22/13 at 12:49 AM
Immigration Reform
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Senate Committee Passes Immigration Bill, Minus Protections for Gay Couples

By Margaret Hartmann

LONG BEACH, CA - MAY 18: A group that wants immigration reform for gay partners marches in the Pride Parade at the conclusion of the two-day 25th annual Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride Festival and Celebration on May 18, 2008 in Long Beach, California. The California Supreme Court voted 4-3 to overturn a ban on gay marriage in California on May 15, 2008 making it the second state where gays and lesbians can marry. Legal gay weddings will begin in about a month. Anti-gay activists vow to change the California constitution to disallow voters the right to approve same-sex marriages. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

After deliberating for five days and considering more than 300 amendments, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bipartisan immigration reform bill on Tuesday evening, clearing the way for a debate on the Senate floor early next month. The bill was approved 13-5, with support from only three Republicans; Gang of Eight members Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham, and Orrin Hatch, who the group wooed by accepting his amendment to offer more visas for high-skilled workers. The new version of the bill should be more palatable to Republicans, particularly since they won their game of chicken with Patrick Leahy over adding provisions to protect same-sex couples.

5/21/13 at 11:42 PM
Crimes And Misdemeanors
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Government Takes Down Brooklyn Anarchist

By Adam Martin

A Brooklyn man who refused to testify about the 2008 bombing of a Times Square military recruitment center went to jail on Tuesday, where he may wind up staying for the next 18 months. Gerald Koch, a 24-year-old self-described anarchist, first refused to answer questions from a grand jury in the case in 2009, and reiterated that position last week. After Koch refused to answer any questions on Tuesday, Judge John F. Keenan ordered him remanded to Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center (two stars on Yelp) for an indefinite period of time. "The judge added that Mr. Koch could remain in jail for 18 months, or for as long as the grand jury was empaneled," The New York Times reports. But he can get released if he decides to testify.

5/21/13 at 10:28 PM
Loose Animals
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Renegade Goat's Pulaski Skyway Escape Plan Totally Worked

By Adam Martin

Early Tuesday morning, a goat apparently riding in the back of a truck to a slaughterhouse either escaped or fell out on the Pulaski Skyway east of Jersey City. After dodging cops and cars for almost two hours and causing four accidents in the process, the goat now has a name, Sky, and will almost certainly live out the rest of her life on an actual (not metaphorical) farm upstate after a stint in a Jersey City shelter. "If no one claims her, the goat will be moved to a rescue farm in Wantage," The New York Daily News reports. And even if someone does, the chances of a public outcry to save the animal are pretty big, considering the high-profile adventure it's had. Goats: 1, slaughterhouse: many.

There's video!

5/21/13 at 6:50 PM
On Language
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Creator of GIF Still Adamant About That Soft G

"The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.” — Steve Wilhite, the creator of GIF, in an email to the New York Times.

Oklahoma Woman Has to Leave State Now, Forever, Thanks to Wolf Blitzer

By Dan Amira

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"I'm actually an atheist," the tornado survivor admitted to CNN's Wolf Blitzer, who had prodded her about whether she "thanked the Lord."

A Kickstarter campaign has already begun to relocate the woman and her family to the coast.

5/21/13 at 5:58 PM
Crimes And Misdemeanors
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Jodi Arias Lists Prison Extracurriculars in Attempt to Avoid Death Penalty

By Joe Coscarelli

After being convicted in Arizona of killing her ex-boyfriend, following the battiest trial of the year, Jodi Arias said, "I believe death is the ultimate freedom and I'd rather have my freedom as soon as I can get it." She took back that death wish today during the penalty phase of her epic half-year in court, running down her volunteerism behind bars like an overachieving college applicant and detailing her future plans should she be given a life sentence instead of the death penalty. Among her ideas to "affect positive change and contribute in a meaningful way": implementing a recycling program; teaching women to read; starting a book club; and donating her hair to Locks of Love, which she said she's done three times since her arrest.

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